Journalist Gleb Korsak didn’t refuse his old acquaintance, Pyotr Favor’sky, when asked to store a painting by the 17th-century Flemish master van Tilbough—“Self-Portrait with Death.” Gleb didn’t even unpack the masterpiece until he learned that Favor’sky had died that very evening under very strange circumstances! He was, quite literally, terrified to death by something…
Gleb immediately understood it was the painting. He learned that a hundred years ago it belonged to perfumer Heinrich Brocard, the creator of the first soap-and-perfume factory in Russia. It turns out that at his request, some details were redrawn in the “Self-Portrait.” That means the famous Frenchman encrypted some kind of secret in the painting…